One of the first calls Milan Brown made after he was hired as Holy Cross men's basketball coach in April was to Ralph Willard.

Willard, of course, coached Holy Cross, his alma mater, for 10 seasons and guided the Crusaders to four NCAA tournament appearances before leaving for the University of Louisville after the 2008-09 season.

Brown wanted to pick Willard's brain about all things HC, especially the Crusaders' returning players, whom Willard recruited. Willard came to campus to see Brown in early June. Brown suggested the obvious meeting spot — the men's basketball office.

“I wanted to get some of the vision he had for each player to see how I might need to curve what I'm thinking about them and how it will fit with how I'm going to coach,” Brown said. “It was really good to meet with him, not only from a basketball perspective, but I wanted him to understand, ‘Hey, I know you put a lot of work in and you love the college,' and I let him know that I think we're going to hopefully do what he did and hopefully take it to another level.”

Brown, 39, brings great energy to his new job and is confident he can move the program forward from last year's huge disappointment. Sean Kearney was fired after going 9-22 in his one season with the Crusaders.

Part of moving ahead, Brown believes, is connecting with HC's past. In addition to Willard, Brown has talked to Bob Cousy, Togo Palazzi, George Blaney, Kevin Hamilton, Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas.

“The thing I love about the college is the tradition,” Brown said. “I'm big on that. I believe that the tradition is strong enough that last year's speed bump is an obstacle we can get over.”

The last four months have been a whirlwind for Brown, his staff and his family.

“We've been ripping and running,” he said. He brought his former Mount St. Mary's assistants — Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson and Dan Engelstad — with him to Holy Cross and that has helped ease the transition. Almost all of July was spent on the road recruiting.

Brown's family — consisting of his wife, Tina, and their young daughters, Nyla and Sanaa — relocated in June from Maryland. The Browns are living in Shrewsbury. Artwork by Nyla and Sanaa decorates the whiteboard in Brown's HC office.

One of Brown's first tasks was getting in touch with this year's incoming class — forwards Steve Carver and Dave Dudzinski and guard Joe O'Shea.

“My thing to them was there has been a change, obviously, but some of the reasons you chose Holy Cross have definitely not changed,” Brown said. “This decision you're making is not just a basketball decision, it's your life. Make a good life decision.”

All three will be at Holy Cross this fall.

They will join what projects to be a good returning team with veterans like Andrew Keister, Andrew Beinert, R.J. Evans and Devin Brown.

“One thing I was impressed with when I got here in the midst of the change,” the coach said, “was that there were two things that were going to happen for them as players. They were either going to split and scatter or they were going to be closer together. You could tell that they came closer together. That makes it easier for me to sell them on how we're going to play, how I am as a coach and as a person. Right now, they're believing.”

Brown's Mount St. Mary's teams were built on defense, and it will be the same at Holy Cross. His defensive philosophy was one of the things that appealed to HC director of athletics Dick Regan when he hired Brown.

Over the last three seasons, the Mountaineers allowed 64.7 points per game and held opponents to 41 percent shooting.

“We're going to be a good defensive team, especially in the halfcourt,” Brown said. “I just believe the nights when the shots aren't falling, if you can defend and make a few free throws and don't turn the ball over, you might be able to win a few ball games that shooting-percentage-wise you're not supposed to win. Also, it brings a certain physical and mental toughness to you when you start building your program on the defensive end.”

The 2010-11 schedule is just about finalized. Out-of-conference opponents include Boston College, UMass, Wake Forest, New Hampshire, Hofstra, St. Joseph's and George Washington.

“I can't wait for the guys to get back so we can get to work,” Brown said. “I'm the third voice in three years for some of these guys, so the terminology could be different. As long as everyone is willing to work hard and understands that probably as hard as they're going to work, I'll keep telling them it's probably not going to be good enough. I'm just going to try to push them as hard as I possibly can and keep telling them if we work that hard and smart, hopefully sometime in the middle of March, everybody's happy that we sweated so much.”